Yankees back in AL East lead

BALTIMORE – Alex Rodriguez hit his 300th home run with the Yankees, Russell Martin and Steve Pearce also homered and New York regained sole possession of first place in the AL East on Friday night by defeating the Baltimore Orioles, 8-5

The Yankees built a 7-0 lead in the fifth inning against rookie Wei-Yin Chen (12-9) and held on for their third win in nine games. New York had lost eight of 11 to the Orioles, including the opener of this four-game series that runs through Sunday.

American League

Rays 3, Rangers 1 (11 innings) at St. Petersburg, Fla.: Ben Zobrist's home run in the bottom of the 11th inning lifted Tampa Bay past Texas. Zobrist's 16th homer came off Mark Lowe (0-1) after a leadoff walk to B.J. Upton.

Royals 7, White Sox 5 at Chicago: Lorenzo Cain hit two home runs, including a tie-breaking, two-run shot in the ninth inning, as Kansas City beat Chicago.

Braves 3, Mets 0 at New York: Former Germantown player Paul Maholm and the Braves bullpen combined to give Atlanta three straight shutouts for the first time in exactly a decade, and the NL wild-card leaders beat New York. Coming off two 1-0 wins over Colorado, the Braves' staff stretched its scoreless streak to 28 innings. Atlanta last pitched three straight shutouts on Sept. 4-7, 2002, according to STATS LLC.

Marlins 9, Nationals 7 (10 innings) at Washington: Stephen Strasburg matched his career low by lasting only three innings in his likely final home start of the season, allowing five runs in Washington's loss to Miami. Astros 5, Reds 3 at Cincinnati: Matt Dominguez hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning that broke Aroldis Chapman's streak of 27 consecutive saves and powered Houston over Cincinnati.

Phillies 3, Rockies 2 at Philadelphia: Nate Schierholtz hit an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift Philadelphia past Colorado.

Cubs 12, Pirates 2 at Pittsburgh: Travis Wood gave up just one hit over six innings and Chicago stopped a six-game losing streak with a win over mistake-prone Pittsburgh, which made seven errors in its worst defensive night in over a quarter-century.

In a development:

Holliday a scratch: Maat Holliday was scratched from the Cardinals' lineup after a long rain delay as a precaution for a minor back injury that sidelined him the previous game.